Fun overflows! Various Queens venues host City of Water Day activities on July 15

City of Water Day programs will take place in several Queens spots – as well as more than 35 additional sites in Westchester County, New Jersey, the four other NYC boroughs, and Governors Island – on Saturday, July 15.

Organized by the Waterfront Alliance, this free, tenth annual, multi-faceted event aims to foster awareness and appreciation of NYC harbors and bodies of water. More than 70 nonprofit, government, and private sector entities will present a wide array of aquatic activities, including everything from boat tours to art-making to science experiments. And like most outdoor summer events, there will be plenty of music, food, giveaways, and face-painting.

The City Parks Foundation’s Coastal Classroom crew will explore and explain the Hallets Cove ecosystem in Long Island City at 10 a.m. Nearby with a similar start time, Socrates Sculpture Park will host art-making activities, a farmers market, shore tours with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Magic Waterfalls sculpturing with the Free Style Arts Association, storytime with the Queens Bookshop Initiative, and live performances by Golden Drum and the Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts.

In another part of LIC at 11 a.m., volunteers will meet at the Falchi Building to join the Newtown Creek Alliance in painting custom-made stencils on catch basins. The effort will reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in local waterways.

Meanwhile out at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, American Littoral Society members will lead a nature walk, starting at 10 a.m. The group will depart from the nature center and hike around East and West Ponds, looking at migrating shorebirds, waterfowl, terns, skimmers, and other bird species.

For the early risers, individuals will join other LICCB members on a paddle trip from the club’s headquarters at 46-01 5th St. in Anable Basin to the Williamsburg Bridge and back with a stop to tour the future site of Bushwick Inlet Park, which will feature oyster aqua-farming in former oil tanks.

Governors Island is the hub for City of Water activities, and it will be full of exhibitions, information tents, gardens, organized games, and laboratories. Other non-Queens sites are the Bronx River Alliance River House at Starlight Park, Castle Hill Park on Pugsley Creek near Westchester Creek in the Bronx, Kaiser Park at Coney Island Creek in Brooklyn, Inwood Beach in Manhattan, and Riverbank Park on the Passaic River in Newark.

Plus, there’s a bonus event with a canine twist on Sunday, July 16. The LICCB will offer free kayak and canoe rentals from its Anable Basin headquarters from noon to 4 p.m. Dogs are welcome.